Mobile computing devices, such as smartphones, have advanced greatly in sophistication over the last few years. Many mobile devices can now have applications loaded onto them from third parties, such as applications to permit a user to read a particular newspaper, to play games, and to perform various business functions.
Mobile applications can be classified into at least two groups or types: native applications and web applications. Web applications generally run as part of a web browser that is separately loaded onto a computing device, whereas native applications are executable apart from a web browser. Web applications may be easy to code and to use, while native application may provide a richer experience that is not constrained by limits of HTML coding or the particular browser that may be loaded on a device.